This comprehensive manual shows you how to go places and do things you never thought possible in a small outboard motorboat. A well-designed ruggedly built 17-footer, for instance, can fish offshore, circumnavigate Lake Superior, and crisscross the continent on inland waterways or on a trailer pulled by the family car. Small outboards are among the most versatile boats ever developed and are far more able than you might expect. Covered here are all the popular types--and some exciting alternatives as well as methods that may change your entire boating outlook. Aided by contributions from other experts, veteran outboard skipper David R. Getchell, Sr., offers a wealth of useful facts and special savvy that reveal for the first time in a single book the true potential of these democratic boats 20 feet and under. Here are the means to understand what can be done, and the way to do it safely, including: how to judge a boat's potential and capabilities based on design and construction; how to rebuild an older boat; how to handle a little boat in big seas, surf, or shallow water; how to navigate; how to read the weather; how to head upriver or offshore; how to trailer your boat; how to manage and equip it for camp cruising on a nearby lake or for subarctic exploration; and how to care for the boat and motor.Incidentally, unless you want to risk voiding your auto warranty, forget using a
bumper hitch on any new car. ... a Honda Civic (not recommended for towing)
can wreck the cara#39;s handling characteristics. ... traction to pull big loads,
especially on steep grades (such as launching ramps) where weight distribution
is shifted off the front wheels and onto the back ones. It is largely for this reason
that Chrysler Corporation rates even most of its big cars to tow a maximum of only
2, 000 pounds.